Play-off against Denmark presents Zlatan Ibrahimovic with chance to guide Sweden to the big time, maybe for one last time
Introduction- Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the importance of Sweden’s play-off
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was crowned Sweden’s footballer of the year award for the ninth year in a row on Monday evening and immediately focussed on the importance of his country’s forthcoming Euro 2016 qualifying play-off with Denmark. The Paris St Germain forward has demanded 100 percent from his fellow Swedes in both legs against their Scandinavian rivals. “It's the secret to being at the European Championships,” he said.
A big part of that secret will be the presence of Ibrahimovic who will again be Sweden’s go-to man as they seek to erase the memories of their World Cup play-off defeat to Portugal. The captain scored 8 goals in qualifying, only Thomas Muller of Germany and Poland’s Robert Lewandowski netted more and is one of only four players over the age of 30 in Erik Hamren’s 23-man squad tasked with taking on Denmark.
He is the squad’s senior figure, his nation’s all-time leading scorer with 59 goals from 109 caps and still by far the most potent weapon in Hamren’s armoury.
Fired by recent disappointments
After PSG made him available for transfer in the summer, Ibrahimovic has reacted with 9 goals in 8 league appearances for the French champions and, due to leave the Parc Des Princes when his contract runs out next summer, what currently motivates Ibrahimovic is the fear of missing out on next summer’s tournament in France.
“I don't want to miss the European Championship,” he has said and although his follow-up statement of it being “unlikely” and “unthinkable” that he will miss the occasion had a hint of jest, playing to the unflappable self-confidence that is part of the Ibrahimovic appeal, the pain of missing out on the Brazil World Cup of 2014 clearly hurt.
The play-off with Portugal was billed as Ibrahimovic vs Cristiano Ronaldo, a battle between two of the game’s heavyweights to determine who would be the one missing out on the chance to play on the grandest stage and, after succumbing to a late Ronaldo goal in the away leg, Sweden had the chance to overturn that narrow deficit back at home in Stockholm.
Ibrahimovic scored twice, using his brute strength to hold off Bruno Alves to plant home a header from a corner and a bullet free-kick which put Sweden into the lead, but Ronaldo was devastating, scoring a hat-trick to ensure Portugal would be in Brazil while his counterpart would be watching at home. Or perhaps not; “a World Cup without me is nothing to watch,” Ibrahimovic said.
The EUROs will regret not being dared to Zlatan
Though another statement spoken with more than a hint of arrogance, to many it carried more than an element of truth. The best players should be at the biggest tournaments and in the two years leading up to that playoff Ibrahimovic had 20 international goals to Ronaldo’s 17.
He had been named in the UEFA team of the tournament for Euro 2012 and was in UEFA’s team of the year for both 2013 and 14. He was the majestic force who had scored that stunning volley against France in Euro 2012 and those four goals against England, including that outstanding bicycle kick that landed the 2013 Ferenc Puskas award.
At 32 and at the peak of his powers, Ibrahimovic would not be in Brazil and it was a shame exacerbated by the acknowledgement that it may have been his last chance, having also missed out on South Africa 2010, to play in a World Cup. He went to both the 2002 and 2006 finals but they both arrived before the striker had truly established himself as one of the world’s best players, the latter tournament coming amidst a barren run of 2 years without a Sweden goal.
European Championships have been kinder to Ibrahimovic, the striker has scored 2 goals in each of the 2004, 2008 and 2012 tournaments, but he could not prevent Sweden dropping out of the group stages in both of the most recent occasions while he missed one of the penalties in the 2004 quarter-final shoot-out against Netherlands. Having just turned 34 and with his career post-PSG currently up in the air, it seems likely that this will now be Ibrahimovic’s last crack at a major tournament.
Time to eradicate the incidents that have blighted his international career
Those runs of frustrations, however, have been the more forgotten passages in Ibrahimovic’s relationship with the national team that, for a ten times winner of the country’s best player award, has been surprisingly unsmooth at times.
Controversy has arrived with the video footage of Ibrahimovic kicking team-mate Christian Wilhelmsson during training and after a friendly with the Netherlands in 2004, the Swede admitted to threatening to break both of Rafael Van Der Vaart’s legs. After marking him in a 1-0 defeat in 2012, Faroe Islands captain Frodi Benjaminsen described the striker as “childish”, “ignorant” and a “dirty player”.
With Ibrahimovic however it comes with the package, a player who is so self-assured of his ability he can thrive in playing the role of the bad guy before delivering something extraordinary as an emphatic riposte to the many who have fallen into trap of mistaking his passiveness on the field with a failure to justify his huge billing.
Widely perceived as a player who only excelled through Youtube clips, England fans chanted “you’re just a sh*t Andy Carroll” before seeing their team unforgettably obliterated by Ibrahimovic in 2012.
A final shot to bring glory to the nation where he is still revered
After launching a boycott following violating a team curfew with Olof Mellberg and Wilhelmsson in 2006, Ibrahimovic refused to play for his country for 7 months but still won Sweden’s Golden Ball award. It is evident of the esteem with which he is held in Sweden despite being an immigrant of Yugoslavian heritage.
His background, for Ibrahimovic, casts him more intensely into the part of the outsider- he describes himself in his autobiography as a “typical bloody Yugo”, - but it only serves to whip up his desire to show everybody how phenomenally brilliant and breath-taking he can be.
Yet in Sweden, where he now prepares for his adopted country’s biggest match in two years, he is undoubtedly idolised. Back in 2013 the Swedish postal authority released a collection of official stamps with his head on them and his 2014 recording of the country’s national anthem earned him a gold record award for reaching 3 million streams.
On Saturday, he has the chance to become idolised further against their longest-standing rivals. The likes of Sebastian Larsson, Kim Kallstrom and Ola Toivonen will be vital to Sweden’s hopes but Ibrahimovic will again be pivotal. Those cheering him are unlikely to be only those draped in blue and yellow, but many more wishing that Ibrahimovic’s genius will earn him a ticket to join the party in France.